by the prevalence of the Mahratta power;
but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder
of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the
late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and
successor of Ahmed Khan, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him
in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore
all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and
this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late
Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier
fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having
withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only
subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father
had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving
him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the
little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory
under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khan, who did
grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid.

That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren
Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to
be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be
hard and inequitable,--but, whatever its justice might have been, that,
"from the _earliest period_ of our connection with the present Nabob of
Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his
Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public
demands of _this government_ [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of
the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his
court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a _sezauwil_ [a
sequestrator] has always been stationed to enforce by every means in his
power the payment of the tribute." And the said tribute was, in
consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the
British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the
direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince
himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were
responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good
government of the country.

II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780,
represent to t